Mourinho Wants Europa More Than Top Four

Jose Mourinho has stated he would prefer winning the Europa league to finishing in the top four of the EPL.

United moved to fifth on the EPL log and three points outside of the top four after their 3-1 win over Middlesbrough.

Mourinho’s men are currently into the quarterfinal of the Europa league and Mourinho wants the prestige of winning a major trophy and qualifying for the UCL.

“It was a big win (against Boro) because it keeps us alive in the fourth position race,” he said at the Riverside.

“If we don’t win this today we lose the chance in relation to the Arsenal defeat, and Man City and Liverpool, where somebody is going to miss points.

“But I prefer to win the Europa League because it gives us the same – Champions League football – but also a trophy, prestige, and a European Super Cup.

“But maybe we don’t win, so we have to fight until we can to try to finish fourth, which is what we did today, without many players. We had a fantastic attitude and desire from all the boys. It’s a massive victory for us.”

“We changed a lot of players – we had to do that – and we tried to protect others the way we played,” Mourinho explained.

“For example, Valencia played in a position where I try to protect him a little bit instead of 100m up and down. I tried to protect the central defenders in the last part of the game, bringing another one on.

“I had to protect Juan Mata because he played 90 minutes against Rostov. I had no midfielders on the bench, so I had to go with Carrick and Fellaini for 90 minutes.

“We had to build something, to do what we did in the first half, because in the first half we played very well; no shots on our goal, we had big chances, and they couldn’t cope with our movement.”